Everyone has that one genre of film that is their secret obsession. For some it’s ROM coms, other it’s musicals and for some it’s thrillers. My secret film obsession is Martial Arts films. There was a time when I was in martial arts and perhaps my interest stems from that experience. A friend of mine, who helped me train in taekwondo, is primarily responsible for introducing me to the genre. Here are my Martial Arts Month selections, 2023 edition:
An important caveat if you have never seen the Kill Bill movies. They are pretty graphic. If you have a weak stomach, I wouldn’t watch them. Otherwise, they are fun films and I recommend them.
The thing about martial arts films is that you don’t watch them for the amazing plot and the extraordinary acting. You watch them for the action and the martial arts, kind of like watching WWE. Exit Wounds and Bulletproof Monk definitely fall into that category.
Exit Wounds teams up the late DMX with Steven Seagal. While I’m not a fan of DMX’s music, I do really like his character in this film. Bulletproof Monk has another unlikely pairing, Chow Yun-Fat and Seann William Scott (Stifler from American Pie). I think the story is fun and the action is pretty good.
Game of Death is technically Bruce Lee’s final film, though it was released 5 years after his death. The footage you see of Bruce Lee is archival footage of the film he started to make prior to his death but never finished. This film also contains appearances from Chuck Norris (he gets his assed kicked, by the way), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Dan Inosanto (father of Diana Lee Inosanto, aka Morgan Elsbeth).
Bonus & Special Event Movies
There are no special event movies for the month of September but I did watch a bonus movie. Before I get into that I want to discuss Hard Boiled, you’ll see why shortly. I am a fan of this Chow Yun-Fat movie but I forgot that it’s not much of a martial arts film. In fact, the inspiration for the film is Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry.
Also, I didn’t actually finish watching the movie. When I added the film to my Plex server I didn’t include the subtitles. The subtitles that Plex provided ended with an hour still left in the movie. I will have to try to add the movie again but include the subtitles or dubbing.
Now we get to the bonus movie Kate, which is available on Netflix. This film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Hera in the Ahsoka series) and has more martial arts in it than I thought. In fact, it probably fits better with the martial arts theme than Hard Boiled.
She plays a deadly assassin who has been fatally poisoned. She spends what remaining time she has to track down the person responsible for killing her. It’s a pretty good movie, definitely one I would watch again. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is great and her character is the polar opposite of Hera.
(Click here to see last month’s selections)
“The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.”
– Stanley Kubrick